Healthcare: All efforts to be made to improve public hospitals, says CM

Shahbaz orders immediate suspension of LGH MS

LAHORE: Commissioners and district coordination officers should visit teaching hospitals as well as district and tehsil headquarters hospitals, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Monday.

He was presiding over a meeting to review the problems faced by patients at the Lahore General Hospital. He had visited the hospital on Sunday and talked to some of the patients.

The chief minister ordered immediate suspension from service of the LGH medical superintendent (MS), the additional medical superintendent and a doctor who had not been wearing an overall.

The action was taken over dirty bed sheets, uncovered electricity switch boards and dirty washrooms at the hospital.

The chief minister also ordered transfer of Postgraduate Medical Institute principal. “I was shocked at the state of affairs at the LGH. It is lamentable that proper treatment facilities are not available to poor patients even in a medical institution like the LGH,” he said.

Sharif said that there was no justification for the delay in operations of poor patients. “Had these patients been well-to-do, the operations would have been carried out on time. This is unfair and cannot be tolerated. Those who are negligent and who lack the spirit of service have no right to these posts,” the CM said.

The chief minister said that the sanitary conditions were poor at the hospital, the bathrooms were dirty, soap was not available and the bed sheets were unclean.

“Improvement in sanitary conditions and ensuring that walls are clean is the responsibility of the hospital administration,” Sharif said. The chief minister also said that the washrooms should be repaired.

The chief minister expressed strong indignation over negligence and dereliction of duty and said that such a performance would not be tolerated.

“Had there been an effective check, the situation would have been different,” he said.

Chief minister’s adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, the chief secretary, the communication and works secretary, the health secretary and the commissioner attended the meeting.

Minister

Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique met Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday.

The chief minister said that the victory of Muslim League-Nawaz in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections had proved that the people supported it.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan is back on the road to progress. It is time for unity and consensus and there is no room for political agitation and chaos in the country,” he said.

He said that some elements were trying to sabotage the progressive process, but they would fail. “People of Pakistan will not allow anyone to hamper the process of national progress,” he said.

DFID

British Department for International Development (DFID) head in Pakistan Joanna Reid called on the chief minister on Monday. She said that measures taken by the government for the improvement in education, health and skill development sectors were praiseworthy. She said that the chief minister had introduced comprehensive reforms for the welfare of social sectors.

CM takes notice

The CM presided over a meeting on Monday to review law and order situation, progress in the cases of missing children and performance of Child Protection Bureau. The meeting also reviewed action against people involved in operating a private torture cell in Rahim Yar Khan. The CM ordered the suspension of DSP, SHO and staff of Police Station B-Division Rahim Yar Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2016.